Restoration of a historic landscape

The landscape of Coopers Farm, located in the heart of the Sussex High Weald is essentially medieval: this can be said of few other places in the country. Eight thousand years ago, the High Weald was an untamed wilderness: mainly wooded but with grassland and heathland clearings. These were kept open by the grazing action of large herbivores such as auroch (the ancestor of modern cattle) tarpan (the ancestor of modern horse) and deer.

Over the centuries, the High Weald became an important source of raw materials for the iron, brickmaking and forestry industries - all of which have left their mark on the High Weald AONB landscape. Early farmers use to graze their pigs in local woodlands (eg. Waste Wood in Hadlow Down) (pannage circa 1086) year after year.

These isolated woodland pastures were called dens. They can still be identified on historic maps and are the key to understanding how the High Weald first became colonized by human settlers - and why it has such a distinctive, dispersed pattern of settlement today.

The isolated, scattered nature of the original dens developed into a pattern of small, individual farmsteads dotted across the countryside: this pattern of settlement is characteristic of the High Weald today. Coopers Farm used to form part of this isolated farming landscape.

When the dens became settlements in their own right, the roughly north-south routes originally made by pigs hurrying to their acorn feasts remained - and can be seen today in the pattern of our lanes, bridleways and footpaths. The routes are often deeply sunken. This is due to the action of trotters, hooves and feet wearing the soft ground away over many centuries of use. School Lane was one of these routes, with Five Chimneys Lane connecting with it.

As permanent farmsteads replaced seasonal dens, some of the uncultivated scrub, wood and heath came into agricultural use. By the 14th century the High Weald had become a landscape of woods, healthy commons, and small fields. This is very characteristic to the original historic landscape at Coopers Farm.

As pannage ceased, grazing animals (such as the Sussex cattle) ensured that livestock continued to play a key role in the shaping the landscape of the High Weald. The rearing of livestock was (and still is) one of the main uses of the land.

Grazing played an important part in the creation of the High Weald's character and still plays an important part in maintaining its pastoral landscape today. This supports the High Weald AONB strategy.

With 76 per cent of Britain’s land surface occupied by agriculture, and 65 per cent of that comprising grassland (Brockman 1988), the importance of livestock farming for conserving grassland as a landscape feature remains paramount. Many conservation managers today rely on commercial farmers to implement the required grazing regimes on their nature reserves whilst some farmers are directly responsible for managing their own SSSIs (such sheep grazing at Stocklands Farm in Hadlow Down) or other biologically important grasslands.

Restoration of Barn complete

When Coopers Farm was purchased by the current owners, the holding was in a terrible state of repair. It was in effect unfarmable, because every fence was beyond repair, and needed to be replaced to hold any animals. Another aspect of concern was the original barn, which was built after the 'Great Storm' in October 1987. The barn had not been used for some considerable time, and had become an eyesore, with rotton hay, and flytipping.

After discussions with the District Council planners and local neighbours a planning application was submitted to repair and restore the barn into a useable building for housing our livestock. Following planning permission worked started to restore the barn. The restoration of the barn also included an owl box to help encourage barn owls onto the farm. The clean up and local workmanship has certainly made a visual improvement on the barn and of course the High Weald landscape. But more importantly, it provides a viable building for winter housing of our Sussex Beef herd.



Winter housing of beef animals is really important especially in the High Weald, because the clay soils become waterlogged and can lead to poaching of the ground. With the restoration of this barn, it will allow our animals to keep dry and warm without having any detrimental impact on the soils during the winter months.

Bringing Farming back to the Heart of the High Weald

The landscape of the High Weald AONB is essentially medieval: this can be said of few other places in the country. Eight thousand years ago, the High Weald was an untamed wilderness: mainly wooded but with grassland and heathland clearings. These were kept open by the grazing action of large herbivores such as auroch (the ancestor of modern cattle) tarpan (the ancestor of modern horse) and deer.

Over the centuries, the High Weald became an important source of raw materials for the iron, brickmaking and forestry industries - all of which have left their mark on the High Weald AONB landscape. Early farmers use to graze their pigs in local woodlands (eg. Waste Wood) (pannage circa 1086) year after year. These isolated woodland pastures were called dens. They can still be identified on historic maps and are the key to understanding how the High Weald first became colonized by human settlers - and why it has such a distinctive, dispersed pattern of settlement today.

The isolated, scattered nature of the original dens developed into a pattern of small, individual farmsteads dotted across the countryside: this pattern of settlement is characteristic of the High Weald today. It is also very different to that of most of lowland England, which was settled and communally farmed by village communities, using large, shared open-field systems. In the High Weald, villages developed late - as centres for trade, not agriculture. The historic context of the High Weald was made up of isolated farmsteads and not bolt on development onto villages or random placed dwellings. This is particularly relevant to the rural village of Hadlow Down.

When the dens became settlements in their own right, the roughly north-south routes originally made by pigs hurrying to their acorn feasts remained - and can be seen today in the pattern of our lanes, bridleways and footpaths. The routes are often deeply sunken. This is due to the action of trotters, hooves and feet wearing the soft ground away over many centuries of use. School Lane was one of these routes, with Five Chimneys Lane connecting with it.

As permanent farmsteads replaced seasonal dens, some of the uncultivated scrub, wood and heath came into agricultural use. By the 14th century the High Weald had become a landscape of woods, healthy commons, and small fields. As pannage ceased, grazing animals (such as the Sussex cattle which graze at Coopers Farm) ensured that livestock continued to play a key role in the shaping the landscape of the High Weald. The rearing of livestock was (and still is) one of the main uses of the land.

Grazing played an important part in the creation of the High Weald's character and still plays an important part in maintaining its pastoral landscape today. This supports the High Weald AONB strategy.

With 76 per cent of Britain’s land surface occupied by agriculture, and 65 per cent of that comprising grassland (Brockman 1988), the importance of livestock farming for conserving grassland as a landscape feature remains paramount. Many conservation managers today rely on commercial farmers to implement the required grazing regimes on their nature reserves whilst some farmers are directly responsible for managing their own SSSIs (such as Bob and Anne Spencer at Stocklands Farm, Stockland Lane, Hadlow Down) or other biologically important grasslands. With only 5 per cent of permanent grasslands in lowland Britain having escaped agricultural improvement since 1930 (Hopkins & Hopkins 1994) the survival of the low-input, extensive livestock systems that have developed and maintained the ecological character of these semi-natural habitats through the ages should be a key concern for conservationists and planners (Tubbs 1997).

Farming needs to be promoted and encouraged if we are to continue to enjoy these landscapes for next 1000 years.